VIDEO MARKETING
GUIDE
VIDEO MARKETING STRATEGY 101
A GUIDE FOR CONTENT CREATORS
STEPS TO SUCCESS WHY Video marketing is taking the social media world by storm. More than 100 million hours of video is watched on Facebook. YouTube brings in nearly 4,950,000,000 video views daily. Time spent watching video on Instagram is up more than 80% What was just a blip on the radar a few years ago is now a top content marketing priority for brands and businesses. The barrier to creating video marketing content can still feel high; it doesn't need to be that way. This guide will help.
VIDEO MARKETING IS VALUABLE Video marketing can help to drive brand growth and a solid marketing ROI. YouTube reaches more 18-49 yearolds than any broadcast or TV network. After watching a video 64% of users are more likely to purchase a product online. Conversions may increase by as much as 80% with a video on a landing page. Visitors spend 88% more time on a website that includes video. Google’s research shows that 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television Video offers the opportunity to showcase your brand, product and services and connect with your customers and clients in powerful, never-before-used ways. The ability to record videos in the palm of your hand means the tools and resources are more accessible than ever before.
THE MAIN CHANNELS FACEBOOK It’s a good time to be a video creator on Facebook! Facebook video is emotional, good fun and very shareable. Facebook provides incredible opportunities to target video advertising on granular levels. Metrics such as personal interests, locations, website visitors and much more are all available as targeting options. Facebook has emphasis on video content in their news feed algorithm which means more organic reach and growth for marketers. Ways to make the most of Facebook video: Add captions to your video! 85% of videos are viewed on Facebook without sound Make the first 3 seconds count. Facebook’s Autoplay will count 3 seconds as a “view” Film in high-resolution 1080p HD or 4K Export your video in the format and resolution in which is was filmed Make sure you have a compelling headline for your Facebook Live sessions to attract more viewers. Follow your insights and make adustments accordingly
YOUTUBE Is the World’s Largest Video Search Engine. Some brands and influencers have found an incredible niche on YouTube, but for most of us YouTube is important as a discovery channel.
YouTube processes more than 3 billion searches per month and is the second largest search engine online behind Google, which makes sense because Google owns it. Uploading social video to YouTube allows you to seamlessly embed your videos on your website while also creating content that is discoverable on Google and other search engines. Ways to make the most of YouTube video: Create videos that add value to your audience and optimize them with closed captions, tags and descriptions that will make them discoverable. Add captions to your video! YouTube videos may see 40% more views with captions/subtitles. Make the first 3-10 seconds count. 20-25% of viewers will watch less than 10 seconds. Use video descriptions and tagging in addition to meta data to help with SEO rankings Film in high-resolution 1080p HD or 4K Spend some time picking the right keywords to unlock major channel growth and video view
INSTAGRAM Instagram is thoughtful, inspiring and capivating With the launch of Instagram Stories and their long-form video app, IGTV, Instagram is now a major player when it comes to social video. Instagram Stories and IGTV has opened up tons of new video marketing opportunities on Instagram. Ways to make the most of Instagram video: Use “square” or 1:1 format. Think “no sound.” Instagram requires that you “tap video for sound” meaning silence is automatic. Part of the appeal of Instagram is the quality of content. Aim to keep your videos on par with your photos
Posts with at least one hashtag get 12% more engagement. Remember to optimize captions & tags. “Bring your photos to life” with Instagram Stories. Behind-the-scenes looks at how the photo was created as one example.
TWITTER Twitter is quick, can be more personal and is entertaining While everyone thinks Facebook and YouTube and even Instagram and potentially Linkedin are the social media video rock stars, Twitter continues to innovate its video platform too. 82% of Twitter users watch social video content on Twitter and an additional 41% of them say that Twitter is a “great place” to discover educational video content. When you take time to interact Twitter is a highly-personal and engaging platform. There is so much content these days that one of the only ways to win on Twitter is to dive into those 1-on-1 relationships. Create personal video content on Twitter and take the extra time to follow up in an authentic way. Ways to make the most of Twitter video: Maximum video length is 140 seconds with a file size of up to 512mb Tell stories from the heart - make them more personal and human. Tell a short clear story - have a start, middle and ending. Educate - have content designed to educate your audience.
LINKEDIN LinkedIn is now more than just a copy driven B2B social media platform. It is now one of the rising stars when it comes to video marketing. LinkedIn has made it so much easier for brands to tell their story and captivate professional audiences. With it'sB2B native video ad feature the platform has made it much simplier for brands to tell their story and captivate professional audiences. Ways to make the most of LinkedIn video: Explore LinkedIn native video ads for sponsored content and company pages. Native videos live directly in the LinkedIn newsfeed as a standalone post and automatically play in-feed This is pretty standard and in line with other platforms, capture attention from the start. Attention wanes after 10 seconds which is why it’s important to put essential information upfront and get your message across within the first 10 seconds. While there is no hard-and-fast rule as to the ideal video length, it’s best to keep your videos short and sweet. A call-to-action is one of the most essential parts in every marketing campaign. At the end of the video, it’s important to include a clear and compelling call-to-action that directs viewers to the next step of the journey.
VIDEO MARKETING GOALS AWARENESS: TOP OF THE FUNNEL Do you want to introduce your brand or service to more people and begin a longer term marketing relationship with them? This goal is referred to as ‘awareness’. Awareness video content can also be useful for growing your audience. The key for making awareness videos is setting targets that are related to the discovery of your brand, not sales. You want your audience to get to know you and get a feel for what you can do. Things like total views, 3-second views and view duration are great markers of success.
CONSIDERATION: MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL When you want to deepen your relationship with potential customers and create interest you are creating videos known as ‘consideration’ content. Consideration video content is based around your area of expertise and will help prove you’re an expert in your field. Like the name suggests, its about content designed to target an audience that is already aware of what you do and have moved into considering working with you. When making consideration videos, the most important metric is click-through rate, followed by view length. Click-through rate shows you how many people were engaged enough to make the jump from your video to your website or other content. As a secondary metric, view length helps validate the level of engagement of your viewers
CONVERSION: BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL After video content designed to make your audience aware of you and what problem or pain point you can solve for them and have moved to considering working with you, you want to convert them into clients. It's important you haven't rushed straight to this stage. You need to build up some understanding as being more visual builds more trust that sees more engagement and ultimately more business. This is the pointy business end of the video marketing funnel and is where your visual relationship-building pays off. For conversion videos the most important metric is obviously sales. The other important metric is click-through rate. If people are clicking and not purchasing or becoming new clients then you may have a disconnect between your marketing and your actual product or service.
DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE WHO DO YOU WANT AS CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS? Knowing who you’re targeting is the key to any successful campaign. Defining your target audience helps you understand who you’re talking to and what they’re interested in. You need to create personas for your ideal client or customer. What sort of client fits your service or product? Who will get the most benefit out of your product or service? Look through any data you have on customers and identify patterns. Age, gender, and location are probably the easiest to find. If you’re marketing is a little more sophisticated and you’re tracking user information online, then you should look into interests, industry and job titles. If you don’t have any data you can also rely on gut feel and empathy to figure out who you should be targeting. Consider the problem you solve then think about who exactly would be having that problem
CREATE PERSONAS To create a persona list out all the characteristics you think one person in your target audience has. For example: name age gender location interests social media groups industry Job titles
Of particular use for your video marketing are the social media channels and groups and preferred video content. This will help guide the style of videos you create and where you post them. Often one persona won’t be enough so creating multiple personas will help you target segments of your audience. You should revisit your personas frequently as your video marketing progresses. The further you go with video marketing the more data you’ll accumulate about your audience. More refined user data will also help you with ad targeting on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google. On these platforms knowing who you’re talking to and what they’re interested in is the easiest way to keep your costs down and maximize your reach and budget.
TYPES OF VIDEOS There are different formats of video you can choose to profile and promote your brand, product or services. Here are a few different types Explainers Vlogs or live Presentations Product reviews Interviews Demos Video ads So, which is best to use? Your budget, level of expertise target audience and goals will determine what sort of video content you produce. If you want a really professional look and great script you’ll want to talk to a marketing or video production company (like us) to create something professional, otherwise using this guide you are well on your way to doing much it it yourself... How long is the ideal video length? As an average the following lengths are recommended as guidelines Instagram: 30 seconds Twitter: 45 seconds Facebook: 1 minute; its worth noting Facebook's most recent (major) algorithm update, it increased the length of videos it likes to recommend YouTube: 2 minutes
PLANNING YOUR CONTENT SORT YOUR APPROACH To give yourself the best chance of success with video marketing you need an organised approach. You need an easy-to-use video editing system, a social media calendar and potentially an online content scheduler to help keep your workload manageable.
SOCIAL MEDIA CALENDAR A good social media calendar is the cornerstone of most video marketing plans. It allows you to create your content in a timely fashion, without last-minute stress. A social media calendar contains an overview of the content you plan to run in the coming weeks, month or longer. Within your calendar you to define your goals for each video, the target audience, and the type of videos you plan to make. The easiest social media calendar has theme pillars across the top and days of the week down the side. This is a starter for 10 that can get you going and into a rhythm. Your social media calendar should include both paid and organic video content. The former will help increase your reach, while the latter will help maintain contact with your existing audience. Your organic content should be posted more frequently than your paid content and with a regular tempo. Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms reward regular posting with more reach. Hootsuite is a great social media management to curate content across mulitple channels and schedule posts.
PRODUCING YOUR VIDEO CONTENT We have never lived at such an exciting time where we carry around with us everyday a device that can create geat video content - an iPhone or smart phone. You don’t need expensive cameras and lighting to create a professional videos. With the quality of iPhone cameras and editing apps, you can creat high quality videos on your phone with just a bit of knowledge. The bottom line is, not having the right equipment is no longer an excuse to shy away from video marketing. It’s easier than ever before to create amazing videos using equipment you already carry around with you every day – your iPhone. Of course there's still a place for more highly produced video production, it's just that smart phones have made video marketing so much more accessible.
Some tips for creating great videos with your iPhone: Use airplane mode; So your filming isn’t interrupted Ensure good sound; Use an external microphone Lighting; watch for shadows and consder purchasing a small additional light. Use a tripod or mount; Keeping your phone steady is important Check space on your phone; You don’t want to run out of space during a video shoot only to have to scramble to delete footage or APPS while filming Choose your settings wisely and be conscious of your surroundings Frame your shots; use the ‘rule of thirds
TO SUM UP 1: ALIGN VIDEO TO YOUR BROADER GOALS Align your video marketing goals closely with your company’s broader, already defined, and agreed-upon business goals and KPIs. A visual storytelling video marketing campaign should roll out over time and support your marketing communications objectives
2: TRACK YOUR STATS Keep track of your stats. Follow your traffic driven, clickthrough rate, and of course conversions. Video is great for qualitative metrics as well, like generating awareness for your brand or buzz around a new product, but you’ll still want to get specific about what that means and what analytics you’ll track to confirm you’re hitting your targets. Don't get caught up with vanity stats - the number of views for example. Good for awareness but ultimately you want sales and bums on seats.
3: BUDGET “How much is this going to cost?” While we’d all like to create a smash hit viral video the reality is that video marketing is a longer game that requires commitment and long-term investment. The good news is that doesn’t mean you have to spend loads of money for an effective video marketing strategy. Your budget will largely depend on how you’ll produce your videos — in-house, DIY or outsourcing. You then need to set aside a budget to spend to support your paid video content. Even a small spend can make all the difference to your reach and engagement.
4: THE INTANGILBLES The feeling factor; according to one study video enjoyment was found to increase brand association by 139% and purchase intent by 97%. Another study found that 71% of viewers say watching video content left them with a positive impression of the brand, service, or company. So on top of profiling your brand and helping people feel positive about it, videos can help foster a more personal connection with viewers as well.
5: START WITH A STORY When planning your video start with 'a story.' Stories contain a narrative with a central character that overcomes an obstacle. In video marketing the client is normally the main character, and the problem overcome is the one your product or service solves. Another common story format in marketing is a news story that focuses on the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ that you’d expect to find in news reporting. Once thats sorted draw it out in a basic storyboard.
6: PRODUCTION You can either go the iPhone/Smart Phone route or bring in a professional production company like us. If you go down the self produced route you'll need a basic tool kit that consists of a tripod, external mic and light. Your camera is the heart of your setup. If you’ve got decent phone, like a recent generation iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S, then you’re ready to get started.
7: DISTRIBUTION When it comes to getting your videos seen the key is to distribute them in all the right places. Choosing where to upload is as important as what you upload. You can either host on your own website and server or you can use a third-party service like YouTube. Third-party video hosting sites are the simplest and most efficient option. A key important point to note - don't link YouTube videos into Facebook, post your video directly into Facebook as Facebook does not like anything that will take a user off its platform.
THANK YOU Thanks again for taking the time to download this video marketing guide. Video marketing holds so much promise for brands and business today so it really is an exciting time. If you are committed to using video to gain more results for your business and want to discuss it more you can book a free 30 minute video marketing strategy zoom call with me. Book today Should you need more information about video marketing and video production, please visit our website Also see VAM, VIDEO ACCELERATED MARKETING, with three levels of ongoing support. Cheers John McKenzie chief enthusiast
